Ford Stocks Are Up $16 per Share For First Time In 6 Years

Ford Motor Co. announced that the company’s shares rose above $16 in the New York Stock Exchange trading for the first time in 6 years. It was a 2.2% rise to $16.21 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Ford’s stock has not been over $16 per share since June 23, 2004.

The company's rising stock price is a result of its strong October sales and positive investor reaction to the Federal Reserve's bond-buying program, which sent stocks broadly up at the end of the week.

Ford’s winning streak began last Wednesday, after Ford reported a 19.3% increase in October car and truck sales, which outpaced the industry-wide sales increase of 13.4%, boosting Ford’s gain of 1.5 points of market share.

Factors that helped to boost Ford’s third quarter sales include new products, such as the Fiesta subcompact, which delivered a strong performance. "A strong showing for the Fiesta bodes well for Ford...a traditional area of weakness for the company," Standard & Poor's equity analyst Efraim Levy stated.

In October, Industry-wide truck sales outpaced those of cars by the highest margin in nearly five years, which helped sales of Ford's most popular vehicle, the F-Series pickup which is also the top-selling vehicle in America. Ford truck sales increased 24% in October.

Overall, Ford shares have risen 62% in 2010.

Ford’s U.S. industry-wide sales reached 12.3 million for its seasonally adjusted annual pace, the highest sales yet this year.

Ford, now the second largest U.S. automaker, managed to capture 16.7% of the market in the first 10 months of the year, up from 15.2 percent a year earlier.

“I'm enjoying this, and I could see it running even higher,” said Bernie McGinn, president of McGinn Investment Management in Alexandria, Virginia, which owns 330,000 Ford common shares. “The Ford story just keeps getting better. This is a company on its way to becoming investment grade and a solid long-term company.”